Groton-Dunstable school officials discuss new teacher evaluations

By Pierre Comtois, Correspondent

Updated:
12/13/2012 12:15:47 AM EST

GROTON -- Following up on a Memorandum of Understanding with the local teachers' union, officials at the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District unveiled more details on how teachers would be evaluated in the future.

In a presentation before the School Committee Wednesday, Accountability Director Kerry Clery and teacher Cheryl McCobb explained how a new educator evaluation system would be implemented and conducted.

It all begins with a "five-step cycle" covering 50 percent of the district's instructors that includes teacher self-assessment, goal-setting, implementation of teaching plans, a formative assessment of the results of the teaching plans, and a summative assessment of the previous four steps.

The other half of the district's teachers, said Clery, will enter the system next year.

The teaching plan, to be prepared by individual teachers, is to address curriculum, planning and assessment; teaching to all students; engagement of family and the larger community and encompassment of the professional culture of the district.

The four standards to be included in the teacher plan are intended to show what good performance looks like in a successful instructor with teachers gathering "evidence" in the form of 33 "elements" that make up each standard.

When the teaching plan has been completed and after it has been implemented in a classroom setting, the results will be assessed by supervisors and graded on a scale that rates performances as exemplary, proficient, needs improvement, or unsatisfactory.

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A teacher's final rating will be determined following an assessment that includes multiple "mini-observations" in a classroom setting, the teachers' participation in staff meetings and other school events, the collection of evidence such as the frequency of communication with parents, student work samples, photos showing class activity, MCAS testing results, and discussions recorded at team or departmental meetings.

"It is time-consuming," said McCobb of the process.

The complexity of the process was noted by School Committee member John Sjoberg, who wanted to know how anyone could be certain that the "enormous amount of work" succeeded in its intention.

According to Clery, the only thing that could be done was to review the process and question teachers about it to determine what worked for them.

"The hope though, is that all this will revolve around student learning," said Clery, reminding committee members that the airtight system could not help but yield improvement.

"We're very much in a formative stage with this," cautioned interim Superintendent Anthony Bent. "It hasn't even unfolded completely yet. But one thing is for sure, for the foreseeable future this is the currency of the realm."

Committee member James Frey felt the new system was a positive step giving administrators a better sense of how the teachers were doing and a better idea of what they were doing.

Having concluded the evidentiary stage over October and November, the evaluation process will continue Feb. 1 when pre- and post-observations will be conducted of teachers in classroom settings.

On Feb. 8, assessments of teacher performances will be announced with subsequent one-year plans based on evaluations.

On May 15, final evaluation of teacher performances is submitted.

By June 1, a further and final evaluation of teachers who have been assessed in the needs improvement or unsatisfactory ratings will be reviewed with a decision on their status.

Before May, feedback from evaluators, teachers and the education evaluation working group will be sought on the evaluative process and compare how the process fared against the goals outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding.

"This is a quantum leap from anything I've ever seen before," said Bent.

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